smilestopscars | A Room at the Arms Hotel, Saturday Morning

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A Room at the Arms Hotel, Saturday Morning

Ezra had had a pleasant ~~NPC~~ encounter or two, yesterday. But in the end, he'd gone to bed alone. Which meant that now he was also waking up alone. And, he was actually pretty okay with that. Especially now that the tug of the pollen had abated. He had a comfortable bed all to himself, and nowhere he really needed to be anytime soon.

So he wasn't in a rush to get up.

Yet.

[ooc: Oooopen for everything that these weekends usually entail!]

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Three for now, + the guys, Kathy sent. Might be good for us to get some alone time if possible. But it might be easier if you come over to get us. He's being squirrely about something.

There was a pause and then,

NOT A WERE PUN I PROMISE OH MY GOD.

Weresquirrels don't exist, darling.

He thought.

Anyway. He glanced at Tiger, stuffing his face.

I also have one of Dante's, I should probably bring him over. Do a switch.

You do? Oh, Kathy wanted to meet him, too. Hers or not, Kathy was a sucker for pretty much all kids. But yeah, that sounds good. Bring him over. I'll come with you and Zeke? Unless you'd rather have some alone time.

Things were complicated in both realities. Kathy wouldn't take it personally if Ezra would rather deal with only one complication at a time.

I don't think I really have a preference.

Possibly because he didn't have a clue about what he was walking into.

We can come over in a moment.

In fairness, Kathy didn't yet either. Or she would have absolutely given him a head's up. Because that wasn't something you just let someone walk in to blind.

Looking forward to it.

Ezra let Tiger finish his ungodly amount of animal proteins in peace, not counting the mandatory game plan talk about what they were doing next and what they'd be doing later.

But, eventually, there was a knock on the door to Kathy's suite.

Kathy opened the door, all smiles at the possibility it was another kid. It didn't dim any at seeing Ezra or Tiger, just shifted a bit, to something a little more fond.

"Hi," she said, to both of them. "Come on in, we've got food and folks aplenty."

"Hi," Ezra replied, with a smile that looked far easier than it was. "This is Tiger. Tiger, this is Kathy." He had no idea whether he'd know her already or not, because pushy prying hadn't really felt like the way to go.

Tiger's sullen and mumbly "Hi" didn't really settle that matter any.

And Kathy didn't gush over him, either, even though she kinda wanted to. Adorable children were her weakness.

And since pretty much every kid was adorable, it was a pretty debilitating weakness.

"Nice to meet you," she said, not minding his tone. It could be rough on a kid, showing up here. "Help yourself to whatever food you'd like. And if you're looking for Dante, he's right over there."

Tiger had already spotted Dante, too. With a glance up at Ezra (and a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder from Ezra), he slipped past Kathy into the room.

Ezra exhaled a very quiet and tiny sigh, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. "So," he said, quieter than before because this was private, "I smell a fox."

Kathy nodded, glancing over at Zeke. She knew he was as aware of his father as Ez was of him and that he hadn't come over already was probably a sign. "I'm terrified of what's going to happen when he wanders off onto the island," she said. "It's going to be havoc. He's the best parts of you tempered by the best parts of me, I think."

She had a feeling that it was Zeke she was going to have the hardest time saying goodbye to on Monday.

Yeah, Zeke was actively ignoring the door, about now, the same way he'd ignored this same scent when he'd been first making his way through the hotel corridors.

Ezra felt tired.

"I seem to remember him being a little more eager to see me, last time," he noted quietly. "Teen angst?"

It was never just that.

It was never just that.

"I don't know," Kathy said softly. "The conversation keeps getting mysteriously changed whenever I try to ask."

"Well. That's a good sign."

It was not, even if his sarcasm was on the soft side.

He wanted to sigh, but didn't. "This seems like something for my room," he said, instead. "No offense, but this place is a crowd."

"I was thinking the same, actually," Kathy admitted. "He might be willing to open up a little bit more when it's just family."

She raised her voice a bit, still not very loud, but she was pretty sure he could hear them anyway.

"Zeke? Would you come here, please?"

Could he pretend to have gone deaf? Probably not. Especially when he'd pretty much been listening in on their entire conversation. He'd tried not to. He hadn't wanted to, but it wasn't like he could block out his dad's voice.

A moment passed before he turned, though. He was slow about crossing the room - trying for casual but failing to hit it and anyway, there was little that was casual about the way he only barely glanced up at Ezra when he came to the door. And didn't say anything.

It looked like teen angst but felt like his throat was closing up.

Ezra was starting to feel a definite, impending sort of dread about this whole thing. The well-hidden analytical side of his mind was already whirring with possibilities, most of them centering on the Coterie and all the unpleasant things that were behind that door.

"Hey, Zeke," he said, trying for upbeat. "Want to take a minute somewhere where you're the rightful star of the show?"

Zeke didn't answer.

"C'mon, darling," Kathy said, slipping her hand through his and squeezing. Her voice was soft, not bothering to sound cheerful when he was so clearly not okay. "Let's go for a bit of a walk."

She was ready to let go of Zeke's hand the second he wanted it back - but this seemed like a moment where maybe having even a poor shadow of a mom might help.

She wasn't a poor shadow. Especially right now. Because right now, he was squeezing her hand, and keeping his gaze towards the floor, and shrugging like it was all 'whatever' to him.

To Ezra, he looked exactly like he had the first time he'd shown up, and had misspoken about the Coterie and then looked so worried about it. It squeezed at his heart. "Okay," he said. "This way."

He wasn't going to try and take anyone's hand. Just pushed away from the doorframe and turned so he could head back towards his room.

Kathy half-wanted to take his though. She could only imagine the dread and discomfort she'd be feeling right now, if their roles were reversed. And, shit, Ez had been dealing with other people's feelings about him so much recently -

She didn't try to talk the whole way to Ezra's room. Whatever was going on was too heavy and too private for the hallway.

Did it always feel this way, to be a parent? Feeling like your heart is breaking because your child was hurting?

Ezra wasn't sure he would've let anyone take his hand, anyway. He was on edge.

His room wasn't far away. He opened the door, then bowed as he gestured them inside. "Welcome to humble and very temporary abode."

And did Zeke kind of do his best to kind of put Kathy between himself and his dad as he passed through the doorway? You bet.

Ah, Zeke, you were killing her.

She walked into Ezra's hotel room, tugging Zeke gently over to the bed where they could sit together. She wasn't sure he'd stay - certainly wasn't going to force him to - but she wanted to be an emotional anchor for him when things got rough.

And from the looks of it, things were already pretty rough.

"C'mon, my love," Kathy said, brushing her fingers over Zeke's hand. "Please, tell me what's going on?"

Maybe if he focused on her, it'd be easier?

(Nothing could make this easier.)

Nothing could make this easier.

Zeke sat down, but only for a few seconds before he was back on his feet. And Ezra thought he knew exactly why: sitting down felt like letting your guard down, like not keeping all your possible exits open for a swift getaway. It was a fox way of thinking in a moment of crisis.

Incidentally, Ezra wasn't sitting down either. He was standing, at a respectful distance, trying to appear calm.

"Do we have to?" Zeke asked, with a flatness that was reminiscent, again, of Ezra at his worst. "Do we have to do this?"

Kathy tried not to flinch at that tone, but yeah, too many memories of hearing it. At her was bad. Because of her was worse.

"I...I think so, yes," Kathy said softly. "Because you're in pain and we don't know why. And if we don't know why, we can't mitigate it."

She was guessing that this wasn't really a fixable thing.

"I know that when you're hurt, your want to curl up and keep anyone from knowing that you're vulnerable," she said. "But sometimes what you need is to talk about it, get it out, and let the people who love you take care of you."

She was so, so off the mark, but Zeke didn't want to, couldn't tell her why that was. Even with his eyes to the floor, he could feel his dad watching him and he couldn't bear to look up.

He could barely bear to breathe in. Damn his senses.

"Whatever it is, we understand, I promise," Ezra tried, softly. "I --"

"No!" Zeke snapped, just to get him to stop talking.

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